Denny's Soapbox

"Houseplants" Living Indoor and Out

The term “house plant” refers to tropical plants we keep indoors due to their inability to survive our cold, winter outdoor temperatures. Different tropical plants accept indoor growing conditions better than others depending on how much ‘natural’ environment exists inside your home. Home owners have enjoyed foliage plants indoors for years. It’s just in the last 10 years that summer blooming tropicals have really caught on for outdoor color during the summer.

The Most Popular Ones

Many greenhouses and garden centers are selling blooming tropicals in the spring along with geraniums, petunias, impatiens and other summer flowering annuals. The following is a list of the most popular blooming tropicals:

Gardenia

Mandevilla Vine

Bougainvillea Vine

Tropical Hibiscus

Various varieties of Wondering Jew

All of the above tropicals want a half day or more of outside sun.

To Plant or Not to Plant

In order to use tropicals outdoors and indoors, they should be grown and kept in containers, whether it’s a hanging pot, a patio pot, or the pot they came in. This will ensure there will be no root disturbance when you bring your tropicals inside in the fall. To make your tropicals look like they’re planted in the ground, dig holes and place them into the ground, pot and all. In early fall, you can lift the pot out of the ground to bring the tropical plant inside.

Preparing your Tropicals for their Trip Indoors

The brightest rooms in your home still does not duplicate for the natural sunlight your tropical plants received outdoors. So there are a couple of steps to prepare your tropicals for the move indoors. In order to acclimate tropicals from outdoor living to indoor living, first you will need to place your potted plants in a shady area outside in early September and leave them there until the end of September. This area should be one that receives no afternoon sun. At the end of September, take you garden hose with the spray nozzle and spray all the leaves to remove any bugs that may have attached themselves to the plants. You can spray all the leaves of your tropicals with Neem Oil for further bug protection. This oil will also make all your tropical leaves very shiny.

Placing your Tropicals Indoors

Now that your have acclimated your tropicals in outdoor shade for a month you are ready to bring them indoors. Place your plants in any room with “enough” natural skylight. “Enough” natural skylight is any room in which you can read a newspaper at noon without turning a light on. It’s also best to have them in a room with no evening lights on. This will allow plants to get the same “natural” light hours as our outdoor plants. All tropical plants rest during the short daylight days of fall and winter. Do not fertilize tropical plants until spring and only water when each potted plant gets dry. You will notice that most of your plants will not continue to flower. This is normal. Don’t overreact with kindness. SHHH - they just want to sleep!